Boring Diplomacy at its Best
by CPortillo
Summary: Have you ever felt like diplomacy was a huge waste of time? Have you ever wished there was more action instead of empty, meaningless words? Well, then you're completely in tune with our beloved Quarian Navy Special Operative, Ken'Koris vas Yaska!


A lone quarian, clad in his exo-suit with some blue fabrics decorating a few parts, such as his chest and thighs, stood in front of the ship's elevator doors, waiting for it to arrive and let him get to the cargo deck. How come the others had received the fun jobs, and he was stuck with being a _diplomat_? He was a soldier, not a politician!

But that was the nature of his job. He had come to learn such things. His training covered some parts of diplomacy, and he had learned a bit, but he knew others could do a much better job. Sighing, Ken'Koris looked at the folder he held in his left hand, and began reading it over carefully. Two documents were in the folder. One regarding Eri'Seya, his fellow sister-in-arms, who was also assigned to this task, and another regarding the Planetary Salarian Governor. He had to find out who this Governor was, did and liked, as Ken'Koris felt that such information was important.

Eri'Seya's document was also important, and some curiosity gnawed at Ken'Koris, which was strange enough to make him shake his own head. He never read his team mates' sheets... But practices could change.

Ken'Koris sighed for a second time in a single minute, and stepped into the elevator once it opened its doors. Some others of the crew walked into the elevator with him, but no Spectre. He would have loved it if one of them had entered at the same time as him, just to introduce himself. Heck, he would have loved it if that cute Quarian he had seen earlier, Aela'Bekk, made an appearance! But that was his luck. Sent to diplomatic tasks in boring environments with no adrenaline whatsoever.

He sighed a third time, gathering attention from a couple crew members, and the elevator's doors opened, spewing out a bunch of the crew before closing again and finally heading for the deck he needed to be at right now. If he was correct, the shuttle should have some weapons to choose from. He wasn't picky, and even a single Mk-4 Avenger rifle would tickle his fancy, since such admittedly slightly dated weapons were the norm in the Quarian Navy, anyway.

He looked at the single remaining crew member in the Elevator, and with his synthesized voice, spoke.

**"Geez, you'd think they'd have built elevators to go faster. Apparently they're slower than ever!"**

The turian male, far taller than him, merely shook his head with a light chuckle. Silence reigned the Elevator's small atmosphere until the doors opened and they both walked out, splitting ways. The Turian disappeared into a group of crew members, who were busy preparing the shuttles for takeoff, and Ken'Koris looked at his transport.

_'Whew. Seems like it's a different model than what I'm used to.'_ He thought, admiring its sleek yet solid looking design. It was a... Professional looking ship, and with some custom paint, it could possibly become a Professional _and_ Quarian looking ship.

But the sleek design would not be enough to compensate for the unexpected, and admittedly quite boring task of speaking to a governor...

* * *

**BOOM!**

A huge explosion suddenly rocked the whole platform, nearly throwing Ken'Koris off his feet, even when he was under cover!

As soon as he regained his stability, he rapidly turned to look at Eri'Seya, who was holding her assault rifle tightly and blindly firing onto the enemy from behind cover. She was afraid, and so was Ken'Koris. **"How did we even end up in this situation?!" **He asked her, doing the same thing as her, aiding in the blind firing.

**"You friggin' left me alone, speaking with the governor, as you looked for something to eat!" **Eri'Seya shot back at him, and he could feel her angry glaring even from behind her opaque face mask.

**"Hey! I-"**

**"You what?! You're supposed to carry your own nutrient paste when out in the field, you idiot!"**

At this, Ken'Koris decided to stay silent, and instead peek out from cover, ducking back down as soon as he saw one of their assaulters' locations. As soon as he had ducked down, three shots were heard and the bullets embedded themselves on the other side of the thick metal barricade.

**"Forget it, Eri! We have to get through this. I know where some of them are, give me some suppression fire so I can get into pos****ition!"**

At this request, Eri'Seya nodded and took in a deep breath. Then Ken'Koris gave her a thumbs up, and she blind fired half of her magazine, letting Ken'Koris start his sprint to the next, better located cover. Then, Eri'Seya stood up and aimed at the hostiles, keeping them behind cover long enough for Ken'Koris to reach cover. Once the comms buzzed to life, and he told her to go into cover again, she obeyed, and checked her magazine.

**"Three bullets left in this mag, and only two mags left, Ken. We gotta do something!"** She shouted into her face mask's microphone.

**"Working on it."**

Taking in a couple quick mouthfuls of breath himself, he felt the world around him slow to a near stand-still, and using this trained spike in adrenaline, Ken'Koris peeked out of cover and aimed at the nearest assailant, a Human, and shot him through the head. Then he went to the next one, a tall and spindly Turian, and shot him three times on the chest. Then, as he felt his adrenaline spike start to brush off, he quickly and breathlessly spoke into his microphone.

**"Take out the last one, Eri!"**

And two shots later, the last assailant fell to the floor, dead.

Both Quarians let out sighs of relief and slowly relaxed their stance, walking towards the bodies of the dead assailants. Well, at least two of them were dead. One of them, the turian, was coughing and spitting blood, shivering like crazy on the cold floor.

The turian took off his helmet and looked at them as they approached. At first, his facial expression was one of disgust and maybe even anger, but it quickly receded to show acceptance and mild annoyance.

**"Alright, turian. Tell us, who sent you?"** Eri'Seya asked him, earning nothing more than a few ragged breaths on his part.

Ken'Koris sighed, looking between Eri'Seya and the turian, before kneeling next to the turian and pulling out a very large looking injection, holding a glowing purple liquid inside. He showed the injection to the turian, and the male scoffed.

**"You think... You can bribe me with... Life? You don't know who- *cough* -Who you've just messed with. I have... Honour to keep."**

Ken'Koris raised his eyebrows, looked at Eri'Seya, and shrugged, putting away the injection. "It's your loss dude." he said before pulling out his sidearm and aiming it right at his head, making the turian flinch and tighten his muscles, but instead of firing, Ken'Koris chuckled and holstered the gun again. **"Scared ya, didn't I? I'm not evil, I swear! Here**-" He said, moving over to one of the dead assailants and picking up his handgun, making sure that there was only one bullet left in the weapon before walking back to the turian, all the while checking their own shield levels.

When he knelt back down besides the turian, he handed him the handgun, and stood up.

**"Do what you wish with that one bullet. Do not waste it, though."** He warned him, recalling Eri'Seya, who was searching through the bodies of the other assailants for any kind of information, with a small motion of his hand. They both then walked away, headed into the Great Hall, where a bunch of salarian politicians and colonists were huddled together, scared out of their wits.

Minutes later, a single shot was heard, but once the local and rather inefficient authorities reached the scene, the three bodies were gone. No evidence other than the spilled blood was found, and it was the only indication that someone had died there that day.

Deep inside... After this experience, Ken'Koris always wished that Diplomacy was as exciting as that day.


End file.
